Scoppe column: Officials are needed - and they do call it 'both ways'

Tuesday

The National Federation of High Schools last week sent out a message on Twitter looking for officials to “ensure that all high school athletes have the chance to play!”

Exclamation mark included!

Upon further review, there was also a link on the NFHS site to apply to become an official that included a short introductory paragraph straight out of a Hallmark Channel movie.

“Becoming a license high school official is an easy call,” it said.

It is?

I think that should be flagged for unnecessary optimism given the way officials generally are treated – regardless of the sport – by (1) coaches, (2) parents/fans and, to a lesser extent since they are still only teenagers, (3) players.

“Officiating,” the NFHS statement continued, “allows you to continue being a role model by demonstrating qualities such as impartiality, fairness, and courage.”

Let’s throw two flags on that one – or a “T” or two. Not for the latter three nouns, but the former two. A role model?

Time out, please. The unsportsmanlike abuse high school officials is beyond withering, with coaches relentlessly riding the striped shirts and the fanatics’ cliché of all clichés shouted by every fan base in every sport:

“Call it both ways!”

The fans want nothing of the sort. They want the officials to be biased toward their team. Forget the other team. It’s the enemy. My team’s players have never deserved a penalty flag or a foul.

They’re perfect. So is my coach. The only ones who make errors in a game are the officials – and the other team.

That’s especially true since we, e.g., the coaches, the parents/fans players, know the rulebook backwards and forwards while the officials have just a passing knowledge of it.

And while we’re at it, all judgment calls should be judged in my team’s favor.

If not, we coaches and fans will question your knowledge, among other things, of the sport you’re “supposed” to be officiating.

Or worse.

“I want the name of those officials.” More than one coach has yelled those words after what he perceives as a bogus or missed call.

Okay. So? Is that a threat? I’m sure the N.C. High School Association officials will get right back to you on that complaint.

“We’ll never use you guys again.”

Again, so? Officials make peanuts to put up with this abuse, ranging from $20 for stroke and turn judges in swimming to $91 for varsity basketball (two games). Officials get $76 for varsity football and $71 for varsity baseball.

That’s it. No mileage. No meal money. That’s my bottom line as an official.

From the pee wees to the pros, officials have always taken more than their fair share of oral assaults. But it seems to grow worse every year.

What gives?

Some blame the pros, whose deportment is often deplorable. Younger athletes see their role models acting out and copy the behavior.

Perhaps, but in this day and age video replay shows in the vast majority of cases the officials get it right – at the college and pro level.

There is no video replay, obviously, at the high school level, where the officials are usually (but not always) not as good or experienced – something that often goes hand in hand – as their counterparts at the college and pro level.

But no matter the level, the coaches, fans and players expect perfection, knowing full well in their moments of clarity – that is, when they’re away from the playing fields or courts – that perfection is impossible.

Officials make mistakes for sure. But so, too, do coaches and players – and fans, who often think they know more than they do about the rules or what just happened in a blink of an eye on the field or the court than they really do.

One retired coach who has officiated recalls having players come to his classroom after a loss and say the officials had “cheated” his team of victory.

Cheated?

Based on what the player had been taught, the retired coach said, how could he think otherwise? The coach is infallible. His players are perfect. So either the other team cheated, which is always a possibility, or the officials did.

Case closed. Blame it on the officials.

That reminded me of something a North Pitt High School girls’ basketball coach told me that has stuck with me back in my early days of covering sports. His team had just been, in my opinion, hosed by the officials, and I said as much in the hallway before our interview started.

The coach looked at me and said something like this: “Officials don’t win or lose games. Teams win or lose games. If an official ever, quote-unquote, lost me a game, I deserved to lose. As a coach, I should never let an official cost my team a game. It’s my job to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Case closed – again.

So, yes, high school officials are needed. Otherwise, there would be no games except those where the players call all penalties and fouls. I’d love to see that “game.”

Think about that the next time you jump out of your seat to complain about a call that in your biased view was wrong.

In the vast majority of cases, the officials make the right call – and they do call it both ways.

Rick Scoppe can be reached at 910-219-8471 or via email at rick.scoppe@jdnews.com

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